CONTENTS № 5 - 2013

Natural factors influencing the behavior of bituminous substances in soils of the Bolshoi Lyakhovsky Island (the Novosibirskiye Islands), such as terrain morphology, freezing/thawing of grounds, geochemical barriers, etc, are discussed, as well as technogenic ones, i.e. type of oil products and pollution levels. The soils of marine coasts are characterized by predominately ground-accumulative type of the radial distribution of hexane bitumoids and those of watersheds and adjacent surfaces — by surface-accumulative one. Rubbly soils polluted with insulating oil accumulate “heavier” hexane bitumoids. If polluted with diesel fuel loamy soils have more organic pollutants as compared with rubbly analogues. Soil catenas on the slopes under study are characterized by weak lateral migration of hydrocarbons because of their intensive sorption on fine disperse fraction of clay substrate and combination of soil creep and radial fractioning.

The problem of the forest site types is among the principal ones in forest management planning for determining the target species and timber stock and choosing the strategy of forest renewal measures. Hypotheses stating the dependence of the balance between nemoral and boreal features of the grass layer on landscape and succession factors were tested for the southern taiga forests in the primary stands of the Kologriv Forest Reserve. The most important landscape factor guiding the differentiation of the grass composition and the chemical properties of soils is the diversity of mesorelief forms (to some extent because of uneven distribution of loess loam cover). At the level of stows the balance of ecological-coenotic groups does not depend on lithological and soil features and is governed by the proportion of tree species which changes in the process of succession.

Methods of geographical studies

Novenko E.Yu., Yeremeeva A.P. Reconstruction of the anthropogenic disturbances of vegetation in the southern part of the Valdai Upland in the Holocene

Procedures of using the results of spore-pollen analysis and MODIS satellite data, as well as the analogue method of palaeogeographical reconstructions are suggested for reconstructing forest cover of a territory in the Holocene. The results obtained for a test area in the zone of mixed broadleaved-coniferous forests (southern part of the Valdai Upland) prove the efficiency of the procedures for the reconstruction of forest vegetation changes in different regions of the East European Plain. It could be useful for both reconstruction of natural processes and analysis of the anthropogenic disturbances of vegetation cover.

Spatial features of innovation processes in Russia are discussed on the example of the formation and development, creative-acceptor functions of regions, patent field potential of large cities and potential of regional innovation clusters in the sphere of “Envinonmental management”.

The hydrological regime of the Black and Caspian seas is studied using the numerical modeling techniques (the Bergen ocean model). 3-D climatic fields of water temperature, salinity and current velocity are calculated with a high spatial resolution for four months corresponding to hydrological seasons. Interseasonal variability of the fields is analyzed. For the Caspian Sea seasonal values of water flux through three sections are also calculated.

Forested lowlands and high plains of Central Russia are paragenetically interlinked by the lateral energy and mass transfer. It was particularly active under cold and very dry periglacial conditions of the Late Pleistocene. The main factor of paragenesis was the western and south-western flow of air masses causing the agitation of sandy material over the alluvial-outwash lowlands, removal of coarse dust and physical clay and accumulation of loess sheets over the adjacent surfaces of moraine high plains. This predetermined different natural features and economic use of sandy lowlands covered with pine forests and loess high plains, once covered with broadleaved forests and then turned into agricultural lands.

Nikolayev S.D., Taldenkova E.E., Rekant P.V., Chistyakova N.O., Mirolyubova E.S.Palaeogeography of the Eurasian part of the submarine Lomonosov Ridge in the Neo-Pleistocene

Sediments of two cores and one boxcore sample taken at the Eurasian part of the submarine Lomonosov Ridge under different geomorphologic situations were studied in terms of lithology and micropalaeontology. Changing character of sedimentation in relation to the geomorphologic position is described. The ratio of sea ice-iceberg-rafted and edaphogenic coarse-grain material is determined. Basing on the changes of peak values of sea ice-iceberg-rafted material and the composition of agglutinated foraminiferal assemblages in the core obtained from the top of the ridge and having the standard pelagic type of sedimentation the upper part of the sediment sequence corresponding to marine isotope stages (MIS) 1 to 6 was stratigraphically subdivided.

Basing on the analysis of geological and geomorphologic data, topographic maps and space imagery a geomorphologic map of the Don River lower reaches was compiled and the areas of the Late Holocene and modern river deltas were determined. The results of depth-sounding and sonar survey made it possible to determine structural levels of the channel topography and the types of bottom ridges. The analysis of time-different pilot charts provided for the evaluation of the intensity of channel-forming processes in the lower reaches of the Don River.

Kharitonova T.I. Response of the productivity of Meshchera landscapes to the changes in nature management types

The investigations in the Meshchera lowland made it possible to conclude that the forest productivity (as exemplified by pine and spruce) shows poor correlation with the nature management type at the adjacent territory and depends mainly on climatic conditions. Differently directed trends of meadow productivity in the upper and lower parts of catenas were identified under different anthropogenic pressure. It was found that meadow productivity is highly synchronous with the index of timber volume increment. Therefore it is fully acceptable to estimate the dynamics of ecosystem productivity by combining the tree-ring analysis and the method of experimental cuts.